ACROSS ARABIAN DESERT

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 25 June 1927, Page 11

ACROSS ARABIAN DESERT

IN AUDA’S TENTS

AN UNTOLD STORY

: Lowtliian Bell who in knowledge of the desert and the - desert tribes between the Jordan and ■ the Euphrates and the region exteud- : ing south to Central Arabia, was not ‘ surpassed by any European, not even by her iriend Colonel Lawrence, died ’ at Baghdad some nine months ago, leaving untold in book form the story of what was, in many respects, her most remarkable journey. It was made in 1913-14, and in it Miss Bell sought to reach the farthest confines of the dominions or lbn Saud —the greatest of all living Arab potentates. Hardly had she returned to England when the Great War was upon us; and soon Miss Bell’s unique knowledge of Arab personalities and Arab politics took her to the Middle East, and nearly all of the last ten years of her life were spent in the political service in Iraq. There was indeed an interlude, in 1919, when, at the Peace Conference, she acted as adviser on Arab affairs to the British Government, and in Paris, though she never sought publicity, she was one of . the few outstanding figures. Back in Baghdad she presently produced an account of the British administration in Iraq, one of the most illuminating of official documents, carefully disguised as a White Paper. But she never found the time to write the account of her visit to Central Arabia, and what the world of men and letters has missed will be realised by all (surely a large class) who are familiar with “The Desert and the Sown,” that magnificent account of her early wanderings in the lands across the Jordan and in the Jebel Druze, a book which has been declared by competent authorities as worthy a place beside the masterpiece of Doughty. I’ortunatelv Dr. D. G Hogarth, M iss Bell’s old friend and fellowarchaeologist—for Gertrude Bell was as keen an archaeologist as she was a traveller —has been able, with the help of her family, to reconstruct the salient points of the 1913-14 expedition. It is the story of the only journey into Central Arabia made bv a European woman unaccompanied by any other European. Indeed, but one other European woman, Lady Anne Blunt, has ever been to that part of Arabia, and Lady Anne was in the company and under the leadership of her husband, Mr. W. S. Blunt. Mrs. Theodore Bent’s journeys in Arabia, also made in company with her husband, were in the far south of the vast peninsula of Arabia.

NO MAN’S LAND

In the course or a lecture Dr. Hogarth said :

The late Miss Gertrude Bell undertook this journey in the winter ami spring, 1913-14, but, owing to the outbreak of the Great War, round no opportunity before her death to publish any account. After varied experience of travel among Arabic-speaking peoples, settled and nomadic. Miss Bell

. desired, for geographical and archaeo- • logical reasons, to exp.ore -Central Arabia, and hoped to traverse it at least as far as the border of the great , south desert. She went out to Damascus in the late autumn of 1913, and, knowing that both British and Ottoman were aware of her project and anxious to obstruct it, she sent her camels and men to the north-east of the oasis, as though her goal were Palmyra; but once in the desert she swung southward on December IS and made for the Safa district and the eastern flank's of the Jebel Druze. The weather was bitterly cold, and there was danger from the lawlessness ol small tribes ranging that No Man’s Land; hut she marched successfully in 21 days to the neighbourhood of the Hejaz railway at Ziza, for which point she was compelled to steer jn order to pick up an indispensable body-servant left ill in Damascus. Her chief stations on a track not previously traversed by any explorer had been Jebel Sais, where are a volcanic crater and early Islamic ruins; Burqa, a Roman and Ghassanid fort; and Qasr el-Az-raq, the great Mamluk castle in asmall oasis where the Arab forces were collected in 1918 for the advance on Damascus, and Druze refugees now shelter. At the neighbouring Cmmayad palaces of Qasr el-Amra and Ivharaneth Miss Bell did much measuring arid photographing. The first stage of her journey resulted not only archaeological and geographical discoveries, but also information about the Jebelivah and other tribes which proved very useful for years later in the last phases of the Palestine campaign. Mis Bell found herself mistaken in thinking that she could pick up her man and he off again towards Nejd. Turkish authorities were on the lookout. detected her camp, and took her and her train prisoners; and it was only after ten days’ detention, much argument. more telegraphing, and signature of a release of the Ottoman Government from all responsibility for her fate that a blind eye was turned to her movements and she slipped away into the Beni Sakhr country. Three of her camelmen had refused to continue: but with local help she got others, and held on past the Unimayad palace of Tubali to that of Bair, the last outpost of the Damascus caliphs on the road to Arabia. Here are wells of which Lawrence and his Arab raiders made use in the war.

Some marches farther south the caravan was in such danger from razzias that Miss Bell thought it prudent to avoid wells and drink from casual rain-pools; hut comparative safety was reached in the lava-capped sandstone hills of Tor al-Tubaiq, orten mentioned but never well described before her visit. Here she was fortunate to find the bulk of tne strong Howeitat trine encamped, and t-o be well received by the ciiief of sheikhs and by the harim of the )amo us Auda Abu Tayi She stayed in their tents for ten days, collecting geographical and ethnological material, and much new information on Beduin society, and also, debating her iuture course; for the road ahead was full of perils. Finally rejecting tlie way by Wadi Sirhan and Jauf because of'the difficulty of finding safe conduct to the Rowalla chief, and that by Teima because of the lawlessness of small tribes (Doughty’s former friends) which range about it, she -determined to strike straight for Hail acioss the south-western angle of the Nefud desert, where we.ls had been reported but never visited by an exploi er. The party slanted across the western •Sirhan steppes for nine days and then entered the Nefud dune country. The expected wells were (found, and on February 19 Aliss Lell emerged on to the denuded sandstone plateau of of northermost Nejd, of which we have; no previous description. She met with no opposition or mischance in traversing this and the farther dune belts, and on the 23rd she fell into the main track f.om Jauf to Hail. hollowing this' for two more marches, she tame in sight of Hail itself, the capital of North Nejd and of the house of Ibu Rashid.

News of her coining had gone ahead; she was met and conducted to the town. But, to lier disappointment, she found herself shown to quarters immediately within the Kasim Gate, and .oi'bidden to penetrate farther without express invitation and escort. The treatment accorded to her was, in fact, much the same as had been meted out to her only Euiopeau predecessor of the same sex, Ladie Anne Blunt, who had arrived with her husband in 1879 —a sort of honourable imprisonment, imposed with equal courtesy and firmness. Miss Bell chafed sorely at tiie long da„.s, varied only by two or three crier night excursions under strict guard to visit the Reshid authorities and the ladies of the Emir, who himself was absent. To make the p worse, the “imprisonment” seemed likely to be indefinite. She could get neither money for a draft bought from the Rashidi agent in Damascus, nor promise of release till the Emir should return at some date unspecified. The truth was that her ariival had created a difficult situation for the Emir’s representatives, of whom the old Queen, Eatima. mattered most. These Rashids were not so power, ul as their predecessors, and their subjects had become of late more fanatically Wahabi. What were they to make out of a Christian lady of evident consideration who was travelling without any warrant from their Turkish allies, and had ad vowed her intention to i.o on south to lhn Sand, their heredity enemy, who was even then threatening attack Mis Bell, however, whatever she had said when she first arrived, had come 1o see that further penetration of Nejd in its actual disturbed state was hard- I ly feasible lor an avowed Christian I journeying a la franca. Her sex pie-j eluded her from adventuring like Dougnty, and she could not proceed in disguise. Accordingly she changed her plan to one of dividing her caravan and riding Jierself with a part only to Bagdad. The fact and bona ides of this change tcxik some days L i win belief, and Miss Bell owed it ilia iniy to the good offices of a Circassian woman, Turkiyah, told off to wait and doubtless to spy) on her, that unexpectedly on March 6, she obtained loth cash and permission to leave for the noitli Before she would take leave however, she stipulated for a tour of the town bv daylight; and this, allowed on the 7th, ‘passed off- without untowi -d incidents.

MISS BELL’S JOURNEY TO HAIL

TALK OF THE HARIM. This cloistered sojourn of. ten da,\ s en princesse did not conduce to Hiss Bell’s adding materially to the detailed acounts of topography, buildings, and society of Hail, which longer anti less restricted experience had enabled Pa.grave and Doughty to write. But it did serve for her to collect from her visitors and attendants, and. also from the ltashids themselves, various and valuable information about the actual political situation. Derived, as much of this was, from the harim, it would astonish intelligence officers when the ltashids began to hover as troublesome allies of the enemy on our Lower Euphratean flank. Unable, however, of ■ course to foresee such utilization of her memories and notes of Hail she left the place with little to counterbalance disappointment at having to turn her back on Central and Southern Xejd. This feeling remained with her througout the rest of her journey. The ride of 15 days by Haiyaniyah to Nejef she < found', terribly monotonous. although her route was almost entirely new; and she shows in her diaries nervous irritation about encounters with Shiah tribesmen in the latter part of this stage, which is unlike the attitude of her younger days towards chances and crises of desert travel. She who used to be tireless now records frequent fatigue. The fact that she had passed the age of 40 would account for the change; hut allowance must be made also for her confessed icalisatiou that a European woman, travelling ,as. such in Central Arabia, is far more of a social incongruity Ilian in any other Arab-speaking land. She reached Baghdad on March 24. The interest of Miss Bell’s feat would he considerable even had it been carried out merely as a tour de force; for she is the only European woman who without a European companion has led a caravan into Central Arabia, and she remains the last European of either sex who has recorded a sojourn in Hail. But, in fact, her journey was not only undertaken for scientific ends, but made occasion throughout for daily scientific work. A chart of her whole route was compiled with ease from her notes, her traverse of 1504 miles from Damascus working out with remarkable exactitude back to her startingpoint, after she had ridden across the Hamad from Baghdad. She had kept her bearings and times of marching continuously, taken several latitude ©bsrevations, and recorded systematically the readings of barometer and thermometer. These are no mean achievements of a solitary woman in so dangerous a land. Of even greater permanent value is the mass of social information which her knowledge of Arabic and familiarity with Beduin elements enabled her to accumulate. Tn such collection she emulated Doughty ; and her results, when ordered and set out, will be found to make a valuable supplement to his.